Contents

Premise

Low on money Fred, Shaggy and Scooby start work at a construction site and stumble upon a mystery involving the Specter of Ebenezer Crabbe, who is 180 years old and Netty Crabbe, his great great great granddaughter who is also a ghost.

Synopsis

At a nearby pizza parlor, the gang find that they are low on cash so Shaggy, Scooby and Fred decide to work at a construction site after finding a wanted ad in the newspaper. They also read about some safe robberies in the area. In need of money, the gang goes to the site and talk with the owner, Mr. Doherty. Mr. Doherty explains a lot of men have quit because of a specter that's been haunting the building and there used to be a house that was rumored to be haunted on the site but they moved it. Velma and Daphne go to the newspaper library to search the haunted house. Reluctantly, Shaggy and Scooby head up with Fred to the top floors of the building and start working. Two construction workers, Jim Rivets and Red Sparks show them around. The Specter shows up and chases Scooby and Shaggy across the narrow beams. They run into Fred and tell their tale.

Meanwhile, Velma and Daphne find an article that says a man named Ebenezer Crabbe lived in a house on the site and was accused of practicing witchcraft because after many years, he never got any older. He then vanished off the face of the earth but is supposedly alive, and comes back every 20 years to his home to get younger again

. Velma and Daphne go back to the site and explain what they've found. Velma, Scooby and Shaggy decide to go off to Ebenezer Crabbe's old house, much to Scooby and Shaggy's chagrin. Fred and Daphne choose to stay at the site and search for clues.

Velma, Scooby and Shaggy arrive and are greeted by Netty Crabbe, and Ebenezer Crabbe's great-great-great granddaughter. She lets them look around upstairs where they find a book of spells, some bats, and a paper slip in a old trunk. Before Velma can look at it, Netty walks in and states that Ebenezer will be here soon and invites them for tea. But with the clue, the threesome leaves. Back at the site, they explain Netty to Mr. Doherty but he states that Netty has been dead for a long time! Velma then shows the gang the slip of paper, which is a receipt for an expensive telescopic lens. They head to the optical lens company and talk with the store owner, asking him what this particular lens is for. The lens is used to see in the dark as it gathers light. The gang leaves and drives back in the Mystery Machine, unaware the Specter is on the roof of the van. They realize this, pile out of the van, and flee. A short chase ensues and Scooby and Shaggy hide in a bakery and in the dark, the Specter steals the telescopic lens.

At the pizza parlor, the gang discovers that there has been another safe robbery. They discover that the construction site is directly in the middle of all the robberies. The mystery is starting to piece together. Heading back to the construction site, the gang sets up an organized trap. The Specter is lured, trips over a wire, causing cement to fall on the ghost. But the Specter appears too early, on the wrong beam, and chases the gang. Shaggy and Scooby try to lure the Specter towards the cement. Fred and the girls get trapped and Shaggy and Scooby decide to just whack him in the head with the cement but it backfires, when they crash in a wheelbarrow and go rolling across the narrow beams. They hit a board and go flying onto the hanging beam that the Specter, Fred and the girls are on and the beam goes soaring into a penthouse and crash into the building where Netty stands! The cement falls down, spreading across the floor and firmly sticking Netty and Ebenezer in their tracks. They unmask the duo and it turns out to be Jim Rivets as Netty and Red Sparks as the Specter. The gang deduces that Jim and Red robbed safes all over town and at the penthouse, you could see all the places where the robberies took place. Using the lens, they looked into all the buildings and watched the safe owners open the safe and they figured out the combination. They made up the Specter to slow business down because the construction site was blocking their view. Scooby finds the money hidden in a plant. The two construction workers were arrested soon after.

If one were to use 1976 (the year this episode aired) as a reference point then the "real" 180-year old Ebenezer Crabbe was born in 1796, built his house in 1820 at age 24, and disappeared in 1916 (60 years before the events in the episode). The "real" Nettie Crabbe died in 1926 (50 years before the events in the episode).

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

None known.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

Did Red Sparks and Jim Rivets own the old Crabbe House or was it a fake? They certainly went through a lot of trouble to set it up when Velma, Shaggy and Scooby were sent to investigate.

When the Specter dropped down a wipe for Shaggy, he was two stories higher than him and Scooby, but they were assigned on the nineteenth and twentieth floors and they were the highest floors.

When Shaggy turned himself and Scooby into monsters, it is surprising that they didn't scare each other by accident.